Abstract: The sulfur-doped titanate and sodium titanate nanotubes(STNTs) were prepared by hydrothermal reaction of sodium hydroxide(NaOH) with titanium disulphide(TiS2), which was used as sulfur source and titanium source for the first time. The structure, morphology, sulfur-doped valence state and doped amount of the as-obtained STNTs were characterized by X-ray diffraction(XRD), high resolution transmission electron microscopy(HRTEM), scanning electron microscope(SEM), extended X-ray absorption fine structure(EXAFS), and energy dispersive X-ray(EDS). The photo-oxidation reaction of ethanol under visible light was used to probe the reaction, and the visible light-responsive photocatalytic activity of sulfur-doped titanate nanotube was investigated by means of in-situ gas chromatography(GC). The results indicated that S atoms were introduced into the lattice of titanate nanotubes as S2- anions. The average size of wall thickness and diameter of STNTs were 2.9 nm and 9.7 nm, respectively. The visible light-responsive photocatalytic oxidation results indicated that the SNTTs with very low amount of doped sulfur showed higher photocatalytic activity than undoped TiO2 nanotubes.

Key words: Sulfur-doped, titanate nanotubes, Extended X-ray absorption fine structure, photocatalytic oxidization, ethanol